Archive for May, 2013

I’m sorry. I can’t help it. When I see an injustice, I just have to speak up. Below are slightly edited excerpts of an email sent to the president of King Philip Little League (KPLL).

I’m an assistant coach for the AA Durham Bulls and I noticed on the flyer for the Pitch, Hit & Run competition that girls aren’t allowed in the baseball division. Apparently, this isn’t a league rule but is coming from the event sponsor, Major League Baseball (MLB).

Yes. Boys and girls will compete and advance separately throughout the competition. Girls will compete in a softball division and boys will compete in a baseball division.

Back to my email:

As a coach of three girls (and father of one of them), I intend to challenge this blatantly sexist rule — hopefully with the help of KPLL. No little league should support such unsportsmanlike conduct. If MLB was attempting to discriminate based on race, the event would have been shunned immediately. How gender-based discrimination has been allowed to go unchecked is beyond me.

I think KPLL should tell MLB and Little League Baseball that the rule be changed to allow all baseball and softball players to compete in their chosen sports, and until it is changed (I doubt either organization will listen right away), KPLL should openly defy the rule or refuse to participate altogether. Otherwise, expect my daughter to be in the baseball division of the competition next year.

I know the girls on the Bulls would more than hold their own in Pitch, Run & Hit and I bet the same is true across KPLL. But that’s not the point. The point is if we want our players to become good teammates and citizens, we need to be good role models ourselves. Thousands of girls play baseball across the country and it isn’t fair to deny any of them the chance to compete.